2 Dogs?

[MrsPiddlewink]

We have 1 dog - a small terrier mix. She loves other dogs, and is in her element when we have another dog in the house. We also have a cat. The Boss. They are both 2 and a half.

Postives and negatives of owning 2 dogs?

Best to get a puppy - or one similar in age?

Any advice gratefully received. TIA.

[MrsPiddlewink]

Oh and should I get a bitch or a dog?

We already have a bitch and the cat is male.

[MrsPiddlewink]

Bump

[Isthatwhatdemonsdo]

I have a male lab retriever cross and a 9 month old female lab plus two female cats. The dogs get along fine. However I would never, ever do the puppy stage again. She has been incredibly hard work compared to our retriever. She has had me thinking about re homing her at one point. I would think carefully about getting a puppy, they are adorable yes but bloody hard work.

[Toooldtobearsed]

I have a one year old male lab, a male cat and 4 chickens. I now also have a 9 week old female puppy. Like you, I saw how much the lab enjoyed other dogs and I have always had two dogs, until the past few years when I lost one in traumatic circumstances.
Puppies are hard work, but for some reason, it is easier when you have an older dog.
Daisy copies EVERYTHING that Dylan does, from going outside to pee to sitting and staying, she is like a little sponge at the moment.
I chose to have a bitch because I love the contrast between the sexes. Great fun!
Watching the two of them play fighting, cuddling together for a snooze and searching for each other when one goes out of view is reward enough for the puppy stage

[EasyToEatTiger]

It's a lot of hard work with a second dog. After a year or 2 you will be beyond pleased that you keep 2 dogs and it will be 2nd nature. We have 3, all the same sort of breed, all with different needs and training. We also keep chickens and ducks. The more the merrier!

[CleaninQueen]

I've got a 3 year old rescue American bulldog and a 18 week old English mastiff puppy. Don't really see much of a difference. Wouldn't do the rescue again though, she's lovely but she came with so many health problems that we weren't told about and has a few issues that we also weren't told about that we wouldn't do it again. We have 2 cats who are both in charge, I think with the rescue we got unlucky so you might be different.

[Anomaly]

When I asked my vet I was told to get a second dog that was different to the first. So I had a bitch so should get a male, the bitch was around 3 years old so the next dog was a pup.

We have two dogs and I'm glad we do. They keep each other company and play together. They are only Shih tzus though so not exactly a handful.

[JoffreyBaratheon]

We had a 2 year old male staffy and got a 2 year old bull terrier (breeder had kept her to show, then sold her as an adult). They were born only a couple of weeks apart and we had had staff since 8 weeks old.

We started very carefully with a baby gate and one dog in the kitchen, one in the living room. And introduced them by walking them together. Anything could have happened. Our staff was good with other dogs, but we had no guarantee that a 2 year old dog who had spent most of her life cooped up in a kennel in a garage would be OK.

Within days it was obvious they could live together just fine. They spent the whole time stood at the baby gate, admiring eachother. So the baby gate came down and they lived together very happily - never a spat - til 4 years later he got ill and died. Have, to say that was the hardest part of having 2 dogs - when he died so suddenly, she was left absolutely heartbroken and bereft. She shook all day barely ate - it went on for weeks and weeks. Slowly she returned to something close to normal but she was never the same. We decided not to get another dog - just give her all our attention.

She went blind when she was 4, and that was a bit hard having two as well, as we had to walk them separately (they played too boisterously and it could have damaged her eyes further).

We were just saying today we don't know how we'd have managed had he lived to 14, like she did. As she had dementia the past couple of years and also went deaf the last year. If we'd had two maybe with different health problems, that would have been tough.

Not being negative though - as they loved eachother so much, and got so much happiness from being a pair. If it works that well though, it is tough on one dog when the other dies.

We had a cat, too. She was fine with the 2nd dog but always loved the 1st dog a lot more! Didn't hide her favouritism.